The Cook (Arbuckle / Keaton 1918)

I'm noticing already how much easier it is to write about the bad films than the good ones. I'll try and make an exception here. This is far from complete- there seem to be bits missing all over the shop- and it goes off the rails once everyone leaves the restaurant behind, but this is very, very good.
Arbuckle and Keaton are very much a double act by this point, pals onscreen and off. The chemistry between the two is undeniable, though you can see already that they were both too good and too big to stay a team for long. And every time I see Arbuckle I'm reminded that he was one of the absolute greats- at his best he is absolutely hypnotic. His little bits of business with the cleaver for example- so nonchalant, so absolutely cool. I wonder how many takes there were? The interplay between the two of them is elegantly choreographed- ultimately all they are doing is tossing food around, but it is done so economically and po-faced, as if this is just what they do every day, nothing special to see here, that you have to stand and applaud.
Arbuckle's a cook, Keaton a waiter, in a swank restaurant. Al St John comes along to cause trouble. Fatty's dog goes after him. They all end up at another amusement park. There's your storyline.
Al's appearance is very sudden, and nothing he does really makes a whole lot of sense- this is the point where you realize just how much of this must still be missing. To be honest, once they reach the fabled 'Goatland' it becomes a bit of a drag- everything becomes more frantic but less interesting. What has gone before is so very excellent though, that this hardly matters.
A big chunk of 'The Cook'- Fatty in drag- is apparently a pastiche of a lost Theda Bara film, and I think that tells us a little something about posterity and the fickleness of fame. For the pastiche to survive and the original to be gone- why, that's a little sad isn't it? Insert something here about candles and flames and- poof, just like that it's gone. Whatever's goin to make you happy.
The first reel of 'The Cook' is silent comedy at its best. Treasure it, be thankful we've got it, shed a little tear for Theda Bara.